There exists an insane performance value in the used car market, and it's called the Porsche 911 – specifically, the 996 chassis that spanned the years between 1999 and 2004. However, there is a catch: They experience premature engine failure due to a small but integral part of the engine. Here's how to fix it for good, and drive a Porsche 911 for next to nothing.

The Fault

The Porsche 996 is, by any stretch of the imagination, a capable performance car. Its 3.4 liter (and later 3.6 liter) naturally aspirated flat-6 variants produced around 300 horsepower and were mated to a 6-speed manual or 5-speed automatic transmission. This, coupled with an aerodynamic and relatively lightweight chassis made the car a sprightly performer. However, the car's Achilles' heel was a small but vital engine component called the IMS, or Intermediate Shaft bearing. The problem with this particular part was that there wasn't a realistic way to feed pressurized oil to it, and it relied on its internal grease to stay lubricated. As any astute gearhead can imagine, over tens of thousands of miles of hard driving, the grease would dry out and the bearing would seize, causing catastrophic damage to the intermediate shaft, requiring a rebuild of the engine.

The dinglecherry on top of this turd sundae was that this issue would happen seemingly at random, with no noises to signify that impending doom was coming your way. This was a huge concern for anyone buying a 996, which drove the price down substantially in the used car market, as the failure rate was as high as 10 percent for some years of the production run, prompting a
class-action lawsuit against Porsche.

The Fix

If you just purchased a new-to you Porsche 996 and are losing sleep due to the pin-less grenade now lurking in the engine bay, rest assured that a few cost effective solutions have been found. Keep in mind these solutions are for running engines, not ones where IMS failure has already occurred. If that happened, the engine needs to be taken apart and the damaged shaft and associated parts must be replaced. For those 996 owners with running engines, here are the options:

Either solution will last quite a while longer than the stock explosion-prone bearings, but the real value for use and resale lies in the DOF bearing, since it all but guarantees a stress-free operation at any operation, if the car's oil changes are kept up to date and regular. These procedures are a DIY job and completion is around 10 hours, and access is such that any weekender with a garage or driveway with jackstands and hand tools could complete it.

If you're not the DIY type and want an independent shop to complete the oily task, they'd charge you about $1000 for the privilege, with a 2-3 day downtime. As the car doesn't have any other major mechanical faults, it's a small price to pay for a Porsche 911 that runs reliably and will be worth more if and when resale comes along, because just like all other Porsches, these cars are due to appreciate in the coming years.